New Palace Yard 15b

This open space just north of Westminster Hall, is historically the site of the new palace built after the Norman Conquest to replace an earlier palace of Edward the Confessor. However by the eighteenth century it was better known for its pillory. The last person to be punished here was Fleet Street bookseller, John Wilkes in 1765. This aquatint is based upon an original sketch in the King's Topographical Collection Shelfmark 22.15.C.